Angel's Grace
by HardfacedQueenofMisadventure
Summary: The story of how Angel came to be the new member of the Alphabet City avant-garde. Can she and her little sister, Grace, survive in the hostile world of New York City? Terrible, terrible summary, story is pre-RENT, eventually following the events of the movie. May possibly become post-RENT in the future, but no promises. T for RENT-ish themes.
1. Broken Home

**Angel's Grace**

**Chapter 1- Broken Home**

"_I don't even know who you are anymore!" _Grace stiffened beneath her blankets and clasped a small stuffed bear tightly against her chest. Her bedroom door was closed and there was a pillow over her head, but she could still clearly hear every word of the argument that was unfolding downstairs.

"_Dad, please. Listen to me-"_

"_-I thought you weren't seeing him anymore."_

"_I'm not."_

"_Oh, really? Then this happened all by itself, did it?" _

"_The test results take a long time to come back, Dad. This could have happened months ago. In fact, it probably did." _There was a brief period during which only vague, quiet murmuring could be heard.

"_Why should I feel sorry for him? It's only his own fault! None of this would have happened if he'd attempted to be in any way normal!" _More quiet, yet authoritative murmurs. It sounded like _Mama _had joined the argument.

"_There is nothing natural about wanting to… about any of this! First, you just announce out of the blue that you're seeing another boy and expect me to accept it… Then this unnatural clothing thing… and now this!"_

"_You weren't meant to find out about this. Ever." _Her brother's voice, so calm amidst the chaos, was trembling.

"_Oh, so you were just going to stay quiet about it and hope we never realized what had happened until you died, is that it? Couldn't even tell your own parents that you have AIDS?" _Complete silence. She could only imagine how the scene downstairs would look. Then _Papa's _voice again, dangerously low and soft.

"_You're a complete disgrace. Whoever you are, whatever shadow has overtaken you… You are not my son." _The downstairs door opened and closed, and she heard footsteps on the stairs. _Angel! _She wanted badly to run to him and hug him, but he stormed straight past her bedroom and into his own. From then on it sounded as though he was going through all of his drawers and cupboards, looking for something. Then there were a few minutes of quiet. Then his bedroom door opened again and she heard him tiptoeing down the stairs. It sounded as though he was wearing his high heels; the ones that _Papa _had said were only for girls to wear. She pressed her ear against the door. She could clearly hear the sound of the front door handle being slowly turned. _Is he going out? But it's night-time. He's never allowed out after dark. _She turned the handle of her own door and eased it open, slowly. Angel's door was wide open. There were clothes strewn all over the floor and all of the drawers were open. _He took all of his stuff with him? _The eight-year old tensed with cold realization as it dawned on her what had happened. _He ran away._ _Papa _had said that Angel wasn't his son anymore. _He made him go away. _She returned to her own room and began to rummage through her dress-up box, muttering to herself determinedly.

* * *

_Tainted. Filthy. Corrupt. _Words scattered through Angel's head like dead leaves on a forest floor. _Wrong. Abnormal. Sick. Especially __**sick**__._ _HIV positive. (Yet another mark of shame to add to my record. Along with sleeping with a man and 'betraying my family'.) _Wind blew around him _(no, I'm not him anymore, I've changed, I'm new)_ in sharp freezing bursts as he _(she, __**dammit**__) _walked. Everything had gone so horribly wrong in such a short amount of time. She might've known something was going to happen from the moment she woke up: everyone in the house was behaving just like a normal family should for a change.

_Goddamn early post. _If it had been just a few hours later she could have hidden it. _Sending that kind of thing by mail should be illegal anyway. _Sensing an argument before it began, Angel had fled from the house. But she had known that something would drive her back before dark: the weather, the crowds, her conscience. _(No I can't go back there, they don't want me anymore. Don't want a freak for a son…) _However, she knew there was one member of her family who would be wondering where she was. Somewhere in the house she had left behind, there was a little girl sitting all alone in her bedroom, wondering why her _hermano _didn't come and play. So, yes, after a few hours, she had returned home, only to be driven back out again, and this time permanently, it seemed.  
_Grace. I never told her goodbye. She's gonna wonder where I am. Oh God, she'll be so worried. _But hadn't their father told him that he was a bad influence on her once? _(Hope you're all happy now. This is what you wanted all along, isn't it?) _She wondered what they would tell Grace in the morning: _Oh, we're sorry; Angel's gone away because he was bad… _As if they knew or even cared where she ended up. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure herself. Her main priority a few minutes ago had been getting out of the house, but now that her anger had cleared and rational thinking had taken control, she realised that a small problem had arisen. _Where am I gonna go? _She had a little money on her, maybe enough to pay for a couple of nights in a hostel or whatever, but that was it. It looked like she was going to have to get used to the idea of sleeping rough.  
A noise from somewhere behind her startled her; it sounded like quiet, rapid little footsteps against the pavement. Her heartbeat quickened as all the horror stories about thieves, thugs, drug dealers and rapists that she had ever been told flooded back into her brain in a rush. Angel quickened her pace a little, not looking behind her. Whatever it was sounded like it was following her. She sped up further, almost breaking into a run, hoping and praying that she would get away from her mystery follower, when something grabbed onto her arm. Her scream of terror was as involuntary as it was instant.

"Angel!" _Wait a second… _She held the figure at arm's length and scrutinized it closely.

"Grace? What are you doing out here?"

"Following you! Where are you going, Angel?"

"Away. Far away." Grace stepped back and suddenly seized Angel around the waist in a crushingly tight hug, burrowing her face into her jacket.

"Can I come too?"

"What? No, Grace. You shouldn't even be out here. It's dark now. I'd better take you back home again."

"No!" the little girl protested. "I wanna stay with you! Please…?" Her eyes became huge and pleading, and, if the situation had not been quite so serious, Angel probably would have laughed.

"No. It's too dangerous out here for you. And besides, _Mama's _gonna wonder where you are. Come on." She made to take hold of her younger sister's hand, but Grace was having none of it. She folded her arms stubbornly.

"I'm not going back home," she insisted. "I don't like it there anymore."

"Come on, Gracie, don't be like that."

"It's true! I heard _Papa _telling you that you weren't his son anymore."

"_You_ were supposed to be sleeping." Completely disregarding the comment, Grace continued her little protest.

"If you're not his son, I don't wanna be his daughter anymore either. But I do still want to be your sister, so I have to stay with you." Angel sighed. Sometimes Grace's eight-year old logic was entertaining, other times it could be downright irritating. At the moment she wasn't sure which one was dominant.

"It's not that simple, honey. I don't even know where I'm gonna go yet. At this rate I'm probably going to end up sleeping on a street corner somewhere. And street corners aren't nice places to sleep, and I just want you to be safe, 'kay?"

"I can be safe," she replied immediately, not missing a beat. "I will. Promise." She gave her most endearing smile and latched even tighter onto Angel's arm. She knew there was going to be no getting rid of the girl now that her mind was made up, so she sighed in resignation, not wanting to start an argument.

"Okay, okay. You're with me. But…" She broke off to gently deflect an exuberant display of excitable affection, holding her little sister back the way you would an over-eager puppy… "You're gonna have to do what I say, all right? No running off…

"…Look both ways before crossing and hold hands. I know." She finished her sentence with a slightly bored-sounding sigh, having heard the entire stay-safe lecture way too many times before. Angel laughed and held out her hand to her sister. She obediently latched on, gripping tightly. They walked on for a few steps, before Angel spotted something that made her pause mid-step.

"Gracie?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Is there any particular reason why you're wearing your Halloween costume?" Grace let out another sigh.

"It's a disguise, so no-one knows it's us. You're a girl, and I'm a bee. Nobody will know who we are." She nodded adamantly, the little antennae she wore bobbing up and down as if to emphasize her point.

"I…see. Well, c'mon, we'd better get out of here." Together, girl and bee set off down the street, their hands remaining linked the entire way.

(A/N: Love? Hate? Considering review-based homicide? Any and all feedback is appreciated, but flames will be used to _light my candle…) _


	2. Not Alone

**Chapter 2: Not Alone**

_I was right; _Angel thought with a grimace, _this was a bad idea. _Grace was a solid – yet thankfully warm – weight in her arms. Her head was nestled comfortably into her neck and she kept making little murmurs in her sleep. Any other time it would have been touchingly cute, but she truly felt like her arms were going to drop off.

"Damn it, Grace, why do you have to be so _heavy?" _Angel whined childishly, on the verge of dumping the sleepy eight year-old on the pavement and sinking to the ground in defeat. But if there was one thing she was absolutely not going to do, that was make a little girl sleep on the street. And yet the only hostel they'd passed bore a heavily drawn permanent-marker sign in the window. _**NO VACANCIES. **__Crap. _What exactly was she meant to do? Knock on a random door and hope somebody was in a good enough mood (or state of intoxication) to let them both pass the night on the couch? Or the floor, she didn't care which. She was so tired, she'd probably accept an offer to sleep in somebody's kitchen. Just as she'd admitted that to herself, something glowing and neon caught her eye. It was a sign in another window. _Vacancies. Thank God! _However, as Angel drew closer, her sudden flare of hope began to die. The window was grimy to say the least, and a sheet of stained cardboard covered one of the panes. _No. No, no, we are not going in there. _It looked more like a run-down brothel than anything else. Angel shuddered. No force on earth could push her through that door.

_"'M cold," _murmured a voice in her ear. Grace shifted, stretched and awoke. "Ang…" she murmured, her words slurred from sleep. "When can we stop? I'm _so_ tired." That clinched it. The pair of them, it seemed, were hostel-bound.

* * *

The interior of that building was beyond anything Angel could have ever imagined. A haze of smoke filled the small space, making her eyes sting. The carpet beneath her feet was filthy and scorched in places, no doubt where cigarettes had been dropped. _No need to ask about the smoking policy, then. _Cautiously she approached the front desk. The man behind it was the stereotypical image of 'bad': shaven head, tattoos, dirty white vest. He eyed Angel and her sister with cold curiosity for a few minutes, not saying anything.

"We need a room," Angel said, forcing the tremor out of her voice. He arched a pierced brow, eyeing her up critically, before dropping a key before her and waving her away. _Room 5. _She thanked him – a gesture he ignored completely – before heading in the indicated direction.

* * *

Sadly, Room 5 already seemed to have gained a tenant or two. There was only one bed, and that was already occupied by a frighteningly pale woman, loosely covered by the single ragged blanket. A man – her boyfriend, maybe – sat vigil beside her head, holding her hand. His face was etched with painful worry. He briefly glanced up in her direction, and she dared a tiny, nervous wave. He smiled faintly and nodded to acknowledge the gesture.

"Is she okay?" Grace murmured nervously in Angel's ear, pointing at the woman on the bed. She made to answer, but was cut off.

"She's sick," the man replied gently, then, probably aimed more at Angel, he whispered, "_AIDS." _She nodded understandingly. _They're in just as screwed-up a place as we are, _she thought. Grace gently tugged on her collar.

"Yeah?"

"You need to take your medicine now," she urged. Angel nodded and smiled.

"What would I do without you, huh?" she said teasingly, removing the little bottle from her skirt pocket and tipping one of the tablets into the palm of her hand. The man was watching her intently.

"You too?" he questioned. Angel swallowed her meds and nodded slowly. He smiled again, a little more warmly this time.

"I'm Jay," he said quietly. "This is Nat." Upon hearing her name, Nat lifted her head with a weak "hey."

"I'm Angel, and this is my little sister, Grace." Grace smiled shyly, before hiding her face behind her fluffy black curls.

"That's a cute costume you're wearing there, Grace," Jay remarked, trying to win her over. She giggled.

"I'm meant to be in disguise."

"Oh, my bad. Why on earth do you have a large bee on your shoulders, miss?" Grace giggled again, breaking off with a huge yawn.

"Oh, um, is it okay if we sit somewhere? We've kinda been walking all night."

"Go ahead. _Mi casa es su casa." _Angel took her place on the floor and plonked Grace down beside her.

"_Gracias." _ Grace curled up, her head in Angel's lap, and fell asleep almost immediately. Jay chuckled quietly.

"I could scoot over if you want somewhere to sleep," Nat offered. Angel shook her head.

"Thanks honey, but you look as though you need it a little more than I do." Nat paused, thinking it over, before nodding. It wasn't long before she fell unconscious too, leaving Jay and Angel alone to chat.

"So, how long've you two been roughing it?" Jay asked.

"We just left home tonight. Grace was kind of an unexpected addition. She followed me down the road, all dressed up and everything." The memory of being accosted by a bee brought a smile to her face.

"Nat and I…well, let's just say we got into something of a disagreement with our previous landlord, and he won. Nat was just starting to get sick, I lost my job, and between paying for her drugs and food and stuff, there wasn't anything left to pay rent with. So he kicked us out."

"That's terrible." Jay shrugged.

"We get by."

"How?" He smiled lazily, as though it were the easiest thing in the world.

"My drums, her voice, and a hat to catch the pennies in. 'Cept she's not so up to singing today. That's kind of why we're here, actually. We've got a regular spot up at The Space, with a tent, but we had it _borrowed _by somebody who can actually perform tonight. Still," he shrugged lightly, "give us a couple of days and we'll be out there again."

"You're street performers?" she asked. Jay nodded, with a showman's flourish. "Whoa. That's kinda cool, actually."

"You should consider it," he said wisely. "It's rough out there, 'specially with a little kid on board. Tell you what, I'll take you both down there tomorrow, show you how we work. Sound okay?" He spoke indifferently, as though offering out help were a simple act, but Angel was filled with true gratitude.

"Thank you," she breathed. Jay shrugged again.

"Don't mention it. Now, you'd better get some sleep. We start pretty early." Angel nodded and shuffled back to lean against the bed, careful not to jostle her sleeping sister. She glanced up at Jay, and, for the first time since leaving her house, felt as though everything was going to be all right for them both.

**(A/N: Yep, I went there. There are now other OC's involved. They just started out as extras, sort of, but then they took on a life of their own. Major apologies for the dubious quality and massive quantity of dialogue in this chapter, as I write this note, I am in fact taking time off school with some kind of cold/flu thing. Still, what better opportunity to update something. Review generously, and flames will just induce a **_**blaze of glory.)[**_**I should probably give up on the lyric-based flame puns, huh?]**


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